Artist Info
Alan Bartram
Alan Bartram (1932-2013) was a British graphic designer and historian of design and lettering.
Bartram studied painting and typography and became a graphic designer, working for Lund Humphries and IBM. He researched the history of British vernacular design and lettering, publishing books on traditional British tombstones, shop and street name lettering as well as on book typography.
He is one of a group of designers who transformed the face of British art, fashion, film, television, advertising, newspapers and magazines’ between the mid-1950s and early 1960s.
Bartram, originally trained in painting, was taught typography by his brother Harold, who was a teacher at the London School of Printing (now the LCC).
Published works:
An Atlas of Typeforms
Lettering in Architecture
Fascia Lettering
Street Name Lettering
Tombstone Lettering in the British Isles, The English Lettering Tradition
Bartram took pictures of lettering on the many cycling trips he shared with his brother Harold. The photographs are now housed within the Central Lettering Record at Central Saint Martins in London. Most of the images are from the UK, but there are many from Italy, Spain and Eire.